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3.5 Scions of Gate Pass (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 6844312" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><strong>Adventure II, Act II -- fort, village, Nelle, and Tiljann</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>Adventure II, Act II</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Dramatis Personae</span></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Ari</strong>, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Erina</strong>, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Fitz</strong>, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Koba</strong>, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Torrent</strong></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Crystin</strong>, a human psion (telepath)</li> </ul><p>The heroes enter the bridge fort without incident<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>other than some moaning and groaning about the "Say 'friend' and enter" riddle.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p>They make quick work of looting the elven soldiers in the lower level -- Erina is quite happy to replace her pastel-rainbow bow with a superior weapon -- and proceed upstairs. They appreciate the battle-map of the nearby town, and take the time to read through the journal sitting by it. Erina, it turns out, knows the history of Innenotdar better than does Ari (the Innenotdar gnome), so she describes some of Anyariel's heroic deeds to the rest of the party. Eventually they make their way up to the top floor of the fort and find the dream seeds. Crystin, ever eager and naive, handles the packet, falls asleep, and starts mumbling strange phrases in a deep voice.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>In retrospect, I really enjoyed this scene with Crystin, which reassures me that not letting her die was the right thing to do. After this episode, though, the heroes were a bit reticent to handle the seed packet, but they get over it fairly quickly, because</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Erina, being a daughter of drug lords of Gate Pass, immediately recognizes the seeds and describes their ecology, propogation, cultivation, and, oh yes, their hallucinogenic properties and dosing restrictions.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Erina's backstory was unexpectedly prohetic, and she aced her Knowledge(nature) check inspecting the seeds.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Crystin begs to take a seed until Erina offers to give her one, at which point she suddenly because cautious and reticent.</p><p></p><p>Fitz insists they explore the village some before settling in for the night, despite Crystin's objections. They are a bit surprised when they find the willow tree they saw on the wooden model was made of stone in real life. They break up to explore the area around the tree, so Ari ends up facing the initial brunt of the two ghasts playing dead in the tree. She gets badly injured but avoids becoming paralyzed. Fitz successfully rebukes them, and then he and Torrent get into an argument about the right way to finish them off: Fitz thinks she should channel divine energy to destroy them, but Torrent doesn't want to risk them fleeing and then coming back in a couple of minutes. The disagreement drags on as the heroes have an embarrassingly hard time beating up the cowering ghasts.</p><p></p><p>As the heroes tend Ari's wounds, Crystin testily points out that this is why she thought they should spend the night in the tower before exploring.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I'm not sure why Fitz was in such a rush, but it made for an exciting encounter.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>The next morning, the heroes quickly find their way into the shrine of Anyariel. None of them recognized the octarine ball at the top of the stairs (Erina vows to takes some classes in Planar Studies at the Lyceum), but, since they are being peaceable, proceed down to the shrine proper uncontested. Eventually, though, the Eladrin does speak and explain why she is in the shrine.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>The players seemed to be a bit confused about the relevance of the Shahalesti soldier. Ari, for her part, already "knows" the Shahalesti are responsible for the burning of Innenotdar, so doesn't understand what the soldier might add.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I don't think anyone ever connected the red-haired elf with the journal and holy symbol in the fort. No one, not even me, understood why his body had not decomposed.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Having seen the village's main attraction, the heroes decide to proceed upstream. Kazyk approaches them under truce and explains his situation and how he can wriggle out of the terms of his binding without having to kill the heroes. He then proposes they join forces to end the fire.</p><p></p><p>"Sounds good to us!" says Fitz. Erina agrees. Torrent fumes (if that's the right word for a cleric of the sea goddess), and Ari tries to look inconspicuous, as usual.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I played this scene with Kazyk really badly. Fitz's quick agreement threw me for such a loop than I never got to the details of Kazyk actually wanted.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>The battle with the rast is surprisingly harrowing, since it focuses on attacking Koba on the opposite side of the river from the rest of the heroes.</p><p></p><p>When they reach Nelle at the Mouth of the White River, she explains her promise to Bhurisrava, her need for some heroes to save the forest, and the dangers of teleporting.</p><p></p><p>At this point, the heroes decide to try one of the dream seeds. As soon as Are falls asleep, Crystin casts <em><a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/senseLink.htm" target="_blank">sense link</a></em> on her and describes what Ari sees: In her dream, Ari makes her way back towards Gate Pass and sees some Ragesian soldiers, including Inquisitor Boreus, preparing to leave. Boreus happens to be carrying a sack. She gets an opportunity to peek inside the sack and sees Haddin's head, his neck having been severed with some sort of serrated blade. Crystin's reaction to seeing this is, er, complicated.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sense link<em> was a good way for me to run the dream seed vision without excluding the rest of the players.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I figured that Kazyk must have stopped by Haddin's place on his way to the fire forest. He saw what had happened to Boreus and was able to free him from Haddin's control, for a very large fee.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>This vision was an excuse for Crystin to know that she was no longer under her father's control.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Ari proceeds to Gate Pass and gets to see her family having a discussion [saying unkind things about Ari, but Crystin doesn't know that], the numerous pieces of Ragesian armor mounted as trophies on the front of the Westgate residence, and the battle beyond the west gate.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Ari's backstory had her in her family's bad graces because she'd botched a mission, so the encounter with her family was a reflection of that.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Fitz had put Flaganus's armor on the front of his house to proudly demonstrate that his family was successfully fighting the Ragesians, so I figured the other citizens of Gate Pass would join in.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Ari slept through the battle with the dream elemental<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>while her player ran Torrent for the battle</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p>which ultimately ends up with the elemental teleporting away and burning itself to death in the process.</p><p></p><p>The heroes catch sight of Crystin and Kazyk talking at the side of the lake while the rest of them said their good-byes to Nelle. They are a bit suspicious, but don't follow up.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Crystin's thinking was that, since she was not from Gate Pass, she was exempt from his instructions and that he might help her get away, maybe by helping her get to the top of the falls. Kazyk was amused, but his obvious question -- "What's in it for me?" -- left Crystin at a dead end.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Fitz then takes a dream seed and, thanks to a good roll on his Lucid Dreaming check, dreams his way down to Seela Lake and the surrounding environs.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>That was a clever use of the dream seeds on Fitz's part, and provided them with some good information on the lay of the land.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>The heroes make their way back to the bridge and decide to poke around the village a bit more. In their pokings, they run across a grey ooze in one of the old houses, defeat it, and claim an empty bottle as treasure.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Erina needed an empty bottle as a focus for one of her spells, and she turned it into a small side quest. I really hope I gave her extra xp for that.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>When Erina hears Tiljann singing the next morning, she pulls out her recorder and starts to accompany Tiljann's song.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Yes, the party's druid/evoker has ranks in Perform(recorder) -- easily, actually, thanks to the level of the aristocrat class all the PCs started with.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p><p></p><p>Tiljann starts explaining why she is here and soon thereafter gets attacked by the seela who had hidden out on the bridge. The heroes manage to drive the attackers off without killing any of them. If they held one for questioning, their notes made no mention of what they might have learned.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 6844312, member: 6795693"] [b]Adventure II, Act II -- fort, village, Nelle, and Tiljann[/b] [SIZE=2][B]Adventure II, Act II[/B] Dramatis Personae[/SIZE] [LIST] [*] [B]Ari[/B], a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash [*] [B]Erina[/B], a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash [*] [B]Fitz[/B], a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash [*] [B]Koba[/B], Erina's owl familiar and urban companion [*] [B]Torrent[/B] [*] [B]Crystin[/B], a human psion (telepath) [/LIST] The heroes enter the bridge fort without incident[INDENT][I]other than some moaning and groaning about the "Say 'friend' and enter" riddle. [/I][/INDENT] They make quick work of looting the elven soldiers in the lower level -- Erina is quite happy to replace her pastel-rainbow bow with a superior weapon -- and proceed upstairs. They appreciate the battle-map of the nearby town, and take the time to read through the journal sitting by it. Erina, it turns out, knows the history of Innenotdar better than does Ari (the Innenotdar gnome), so she describes some of Anyariel's heroic deeds to the rest of the party. Eventually they make their way up to the top floor of the fort and find the dream seeds. Crystin, ever eager and naive, handles the packet, falls asleep, and starts mumbling strange phrases in a deep voice.[INDENT][I] In retrospect, I really enjoyed this scene with Crystin, which reassures me that not letting her die was the right thing to do. After this episode, though, the heroes were a bit reticent to handle the seed packet, but they get over it fairly quickly, because [/I][/INDENT] Erina, being a daughter of drug lords of Gate Pass, immediately recognizes the seeds and describes their ecology, propogation, cultivation, and, oh yes, their hallucinogenic properties and dosing restrictions.[INDENT][I] Erina's backstory was unexpectedly prohetic, and she aced her Knowledge(nature) check inspecting the seeds. [/I][/INDENT] Crystin begs to take a seed until Erina offers to give her one, at which point she suddenly because cautious and reticent. Fitz insists they explore the village some before settling in for the night, despite Crystin's objections. They are a bit surprised when they find the willow tree they saw on the wooden model was made of stone in real life. They break up to explore the area around the tree, so Ari ends up facing the initial brunt of the two ghasts playing dead in the tree. She gets badly injured but avoids becoming paralyzed. Fitz successfully rebukes them, and then he and Torrent get into an argument about the right way to finish them off: Fitz thinks she should channel divine energy to destroy them, but Torrent doesn't want to risk them fleeing and then coming back in a couple of minutes. The disagreement drags on as the heroes have an embarrassingly hard time beating up the cowering ghasts. As the heroes tend Ari's wounds, Crystin testily points out that this is why she thought they should spend the night in the tower before exploring.[INDENT][I] I'm not sure why Fitz was in such a rush, but it made for an exciting encounter. [/I][/INDENT] The next morning, the heroes quickly find their way into the shrine of Anyariel. None of them recognized the octarine ball at the top of the stairs (Erina vows to takes some classes in Planar Studies at the Lyceum), but, since they are being peaceable, proceed down to the shrine proper uncontested. Eventually, though, the Eladrin does speak and explain why she is in the shrine.[INDENT][I] The players seemed to be a bit confused about the relevance of the Shahalesti soldier. Ari, for her part, already "knows" the Shahalesti are responsible for the burning of Innenotdar, so doesn't understand what the soldier might add. I don't think anyone ever connected the red-haired elf with the journal and holy symbol in the fort. No one, not even me, understood why his body had not decomposed. [/I][/INDENT] Having seen the village's main attraction, the heroes decide to proceed upstream. Kazyk approaches them under truce and explains his situation and how he can wriggle out of the terms of his binding without having to kill the heroes. He then proposes they join forces to end the fire. "Sounds good to us!" says Fitz. Erina agrees. Torrent fumes (if that's the right word for a cleric of the sea goddess), and Ari tries to look inconspicuous, as usual.[INDENT][I] I played this scene with Kazyk really badly. Fitz's quick agreement threw me for such a loop than I never got to the details of Kazyk actually wanted. [/I][/INDENT] The battle with the rast is surprisingly harrowing, since it focuses on attacking Koba on the opposite side of the river from the rest of the heroes. When they reach Nelle at the Mouth of the White River, she explains her promise to Bhurisrava, her need for some heroes to save the forest, and the dangers of teleporting. At this point, the heroes decide to try one of the dream seeds. As soon as Are falls asleep, Crystin casts [I][URL="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/senseLink.htm"]sense link[/URL][/I] on her and describes what Ari sees: In her dream, Ari makes her way back towards Gate Pass and sees some Ragesian soldiers, including Inquisitor Boreus, preparing to leave. Boreus happens to be carrying a sack. She gets an opportunity to peek inside the sack and sees Haddin's head, his neck having been severed with some sort of serrated blade. Crystin's reaction to seeing this is, er, complicated.[INDENT] Sense link[I] was a good way for me to run the dream seed vision without excluding the rest of the players. I figured that Kazyk must have stopped by Haddin's place on his way to the fire forest. He saw what had happened to Boreus and was able to free him from Haddin's control, for a very large fee. This vision was an excuse for Crystin to know that she was no longer under her father's control. [/I][/INDENT] Ari proceeds to Gate Pass and gets to see her family having a discussion [saying unkind things about Ari, but Crystin doesn't know that], the numerous pieces of Ragesian armor mounted as trophies on the front of the Westgate residence, and the battle beyond the west gate.[INDENT][I] Ari's backstory had her in her family's bad graces because she'd botched a mission, so the encounter with her family was a reflection of that. Fitz had put Flaganus's armor on the front of his house to proudly demonstrate that his family was successfully fighting the Ragesians, so I figured the other citizens of Gate Pass would join in. [/I][/INDENT] Ari slept through the battle with the dream elemental[INDENT][I]while her player ran Torrent for the battle [/I][/INDENT] which ultimately ends up with the elemental teleporting away and burning itself to death in the process. The heroes catch sight of Crystin and Kazyk talking at the side of the lake while the rest of them said their good-byes to Nelle. They are a bit suspicious, but don't follow up.[INDENT][I] Crystin's thinking was that, since she was not from Gate Pass, she was exempt from his instructions and that he might help her get away, maybe by helping her get to the top of the falls. Kazyk was amused, but his obvious question -- "What's in it for me?" -- left Crystin at a dead end. [/I][/INDENT] Fitz then takes a dream seed and, thanks to a good roll on his Lucid Dreaming check, dreams his way down to Seela Lake and the surrounding environs.[INDENT][I] That was a clever use of the dream seeds on Fitz's part, and provided them with some good information on the lay of the land. [/I][/INDENT] The heroes make their way back to the bridge and decide to poke around the village a bit more. In their pokings, they run across a grey ooze in one of the old houses, defeat it, and claim an empty bottle as treasure.[INDENT][I] Erina needed an empty bottle as a focus for one of her spells, and she turned it into a small side quest. I really hope I gave her extra xp for that. [/I][/INDENT] When Erina hears Tiljann singing the next morning, she pulls out her recorder and starts to accompany Tiljann's song.[INDENT][I] Yes, the party's druid/evoker has ranks in Perform(recorder) -- easily, actually, thanks to the level of the aristocrat class all the PCs started with. [/I][/INDENT] Tiljann starts explaining why she is here and soon thereafter gets attacked by the seela who had hidden out on the bridge. The heroes manage to drive the attackers off without killing any of them. If they held one for questioning, their notes made no mention of what they might have learned. [/QUOTE]
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